My Sister’s Keeper

    Kate has had cancer since she was a very little girl. In order to save her, her parents created a child, designed to always be a perfect match whenever Kate has needed something. The existence of her whole life has been based around her little sister Anna. One would never see it from the outside, but the whole family’s dynamic is resting upon Kate’s illness.
    Her mother lives to keep her child alive, and has used every option to do so. That desire was one that had led her to creating a child in a Petri dish. It never really fazed her that Anna could feel pain or that she ever really would speak out. From tricking her to pinning her down to a table, Sara got what she wanted; what Kate needed and she would stop at nothing. So what happens when one day, the resource calls foul?
    This movie starts the viewer from a point where Anna has gone to a lawyer in order to sue her parents for rights of her own body. This is the breaking point that tears the family. Anna’s decision makes Sara snap, and it almost ruins her marriage with her insistence that Anna is just being selfish. Realizing that it is time to stop taking without permission and that Kate is going to die, her husband Brian embraces it, and starts to live life as it should always be.
    Throughout this whole situation, Kate is reflecting upon her life, enjoying it as she sees fit. On her deathbed, she takes the viewers through her memories with a scrapbook that she herself has put together. In it are stories of fun, family loyalties, and her first and perhaps only true love. With each family member, she has an apology for what she has put them through, because she realizes the tension her disease causes. At one point she reveals how sorry she is that her brother didn’t get the attention he deserved, whether it was for dyslexia or for staying out late. There is only one thing for each family member to do: keep fighting.
    This movie was based on a book, and the book based on real life situations. Some families have indeed engineered a baby in order to save another child’s life. It questions the morals and lines that are crossed in order to achieve such a feat. Sara could arguably be both a horrific mother and a dedicated one. Her love for Kate is so fierce, that she would do anything for her. On the other hand, she neglects her son so badly, that he isn’t doing well in school, or her daughter, willing to take a kidney without even wondering what her life would be like without one.
    There is this one scene in the movie in which both Sara and Brian have to explain to Jesse (brother) that they are sending him away for a year to work on his dyslexia. As a scared child, he begs his parents not to send him away, promising to do better. Looking him straight in the eyes, his father tells him that he doesn’t know how to help him. This is ironic to me, because even though they can send their son away for dyslexia, they insist that they are doing the best they can by doing dangerous procedures for Kate.
    This movie was a hugely emotional one, that I didn’t find cheesy. I am not one to become emotional during movies, and I actually came close to crying more than five times. It is a powerful story that shows family bonds, and how tension can test or break them continuously.